Buying a car while in BK13?

[jamist649]

We filed BK13 in June of last year. All payments have been made on time thus far. When we filed, we (at the time) wanted to keep our home as-is (current), and keep our cars (current) as is. We only included credit cards, personal loans, and medical bills. Well, fast forward to two months ago, my wife's crushing car payment finally got to us and we surrendered it (we should have done it from the get-go), we were able to buy a replacement car with a cash loan from a family member so that was ok, we didn't call the trustee because it's one of those loans that you pay when/if you can and of course there is not interest and no contract. Ok my truck, which we also left as-is in bankruptcy, is also waaay to expensive every month so we were considering surrendering it also. Problem is, I'm not comfortable going back to the same family member and I wanted to know what are the chances of me being able to surrender the truck and finance a modest (less than 10K) truck without the trustee getting suspicious. Has anyone ever heard of doing this? I owe about 18K on a truck that might retail for 10K now, so I guess I could keep it, but I just don't see paying 4 more years on it.

[Flamingo]

One major thing you did wrong here was not notify your attorney that you had let a vehicle go due to the size of the car payment and obtained another loan without Trustee permission thereby modifying your Plan by freeing up more cash for you without the attorney's or trustee's knowledge. The vehicle you just let go and your truck are included in your BK even though you are making payments outside the Plan. May I suggest you contact your attorney right away to advise him/her what has transpired before you make it worse by trying to do something with your truck. Best of luck to you - I hope you can work all this out...

[jamist649]

I wasn't completely clear about the surrender of my wife's car. We did call our attorney prior to surrendering it and she told us that it would be ok, the trustee wasn't contact by us nor her due to the loan being a family loan. Toyota has filed an unsecured proof of claim for deficiency (8K) but this has not (and our atty said it would not) change our plan or payments. I was really concerned about the payment going up because if it was I was just going to stick it out and keep the car, but the payment has not, at least not yet.

[Cramdown]

I was going to ask a similar question, may be a silly one. Can you trade a car while in 13?

[rrockinggramma]

the issue isn't getting trustee permission, the issue is finding a lender that will work with you while you are in a chapter 13.

722 redemption will work with you while in a chapter 13 but their interest rates are just plain awful. But it is all done through the courts.

And some posters have found lenders that would work with them even while in a chapter 13.

In my area, however, that was NOT the case. When I mentioned chapter 13 they all say "see ya".


I would suspect that you could surrender this truck and get another one with trustee permission, if you can find a lender to work with you. (line that up first)

But it will modify your plan which will, in turn, modify your budgets. And that is when the previous return of the car could come back to bite you because you will have the lower payment to the family member to deal with in the modification.

I sent you a PM

[jamist649]

Well, after much thought. I think I'm going to stick it out with the truck I have now. There's not much sense in buying something at 24+% interest when I have this one at 9%, even if it is waaay upside down.

[becky20]

I'm a little nervous about this as well. I have a 2000 Pontiac that has about 105,000 miles on and we just made our first payment (5 year payment). I'm not sure if it'll survive 5 more years, we'll just have to wait and see I guess... Luckily I work from home so the mileage I put on my car is minimal, so if my working arrangement stays the same throughout the entire life of my bk plan, I'll hopefully be okay, but if something changes and I have to start commuting again, it's going to be a nightmare.

Another question - we are paying back 0% to unsecureds, both car loans were crammed - so I'm only paying $122 a month or something on my car loan. So if the car dies and I have to get a new one while in the plan, I'll never find another car with a payment that low and not sure if that'll cause an issue... ugh, I hate the unknown. Can we just fast forward the next 5 years?